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The United
States and Britain in Prophecy We are now ready to examine the New Testament evidence. Jesus said of his own commission, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24 NRSV20). What did Jesus mean when he said that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Clearly we are dealing with an analogy. Jesus was sent to people, not livestock. People are the lost sheep of Israel. Did he mean that he was sent to a land far-distant from Judea and Galilee to which the "lost tribes" had migrated? No, for his entire ministry was among the Jews of Judea and Galilee. It was to the Jews only that he was sent. Therefore, from that fact alone we can learn that Jesus himself referred to the Jews as the house of Israel. The Jews were the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In what sense then were these sheep of Israel lost? Certainly they were not lost geographically. The whole Roman Empire knew where the Jews came from. Nor were they lost to history. Nor had they lost their identity. In none of these senses were the Jews of Christ's day lost. How then were they lost? The house of Israel was lost spiritually. The word translated as lost in Matthew 15:24 is apollumi (a p o l l u m i ). It may also be translated as perish and destroy. For example, one form of this verb is translated as perish in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Another form of the verb is translated destroy in Matthew 10:28, "Be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell." The word clearly may be used in the sense of being spiritually lost. We use the English word lost in that same sense in the hymn Amazing Grace when we sing, "I once was lost but now am found." Jesus' Parable of the Lost Sheep can be found in Matthew 18:11-14. In this parable he uses a shepherd's loving search for a lost sheep to describe God's care for children who love him. "In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost." As Jesus traveled through Jericho on his final trip to Jerusalem he spoke with Zacchaeus the tax collector. Zacchaeus expressed his faith in Christ by repenting of his sins and following Jesus' instruction to give to the poor. On hearing this Jesus said, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:9). Once again, a form of the verb apollumi is used. Therefore, after we consider all the evidence, we realize that when Jesus said he came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he meant that he came to the spiritually lost Jews. This helps us properly understand Jesus' pre-crucifixion commission to the 12 apostles mentioned in Matthew 10:6: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel." These were the same sheep to whom he had been sent -- the Jews. The parallel accounts of this commission in Mark 6 and Luke 9, along with their contexts, prove the apostles fulfilled this commission during Jesus' earthly ministry. Luke 9:6, 10 tell us that they "went from village to village preaching the gospel" and "they reported to Jesus what they had done." After his resurrection Jesus broadened this commission to include the entire world (Matthew 28:19-20). Acts tells us how the apostles and others preached the gospel first to Jews, then to Samaritans and finally to gentiles.
As one reads Acts it become apparent that the church understood that the Jews were the house of Israel. The church did not look for Israelites among any other people. Peter, when he stood to preach his famous Pentecost sermon, cried out, "Fellow Jews and all of you who are in Jerusalem!" (Acts 2:14). These Jews he later called "men of Israel" and "brothers" (Acts 2:22, 29). He preached to them that "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." The NIV tells us that he wanted all of Israel to know this, but the NRSV is more revealing, and more accurate: "Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah" (Acts 2:36). The Jewish people included significant members of all the tribes. They therefore took their national name, Israel. Interpretations of prophecies about Israel that fail to account for how Christ and the church referred to the Jews as the house of Israel are flawed. Unfortunately, The United States and Britain in Prophecy did not adequately address such issues. The New Testament uses Israel and Jews interchangeably. In the New Testament, if one is an Israelite, one is a Jew, and vice versa. It was once true that not all Israelites were Jews. But by Jesus' day, as the New Testament reflects, Israelites from all 12 tribes were referred to as Jews. The book of Acts records that the apostles addressed their countrymen in terms that do not fit in with the explanations found in The United States and Britain in Prophecy. Time and again, the Jewish apostles called their countrymen Israelites. Because of the influence of The United States and Britain in Prophecy, many of us would have felt compelled to correct any minister who called Jews Israel. At the very least we would have thought the man careless. How often have we heard the claim that the modern state of Israel is misnamed, for the people there "aren't Israelites at all, but Jews"? Yet what did the early church call these people?
Whom did Peter say crucified Christ? The rulers, the elders, and everyone else in Israel! Later, a church prayer mentioned that "Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city [Jerusalem] to conspire against your holy servant Jesus" (Act 4:27). Yes, in Jesus' day, people of Israel lived in Jerusalem. When God began calling the uncircumcised, Peter said, "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. This is the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ" (Acts 10:34-35). Luke, in writing his Gospel, wrote that John the Baptist "lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel" (Luke 1:80). John records that Jesus said of Nicodemus, "You are Israel's teacher" (John 3:10). You'll recall that Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, called the Jewish ruling council in John 3:1, but described as the "full assembly of the elders of Israel" in Acts 5:21. There is no evidence that the apostles and Christ were merely bowing to custom when they called Jews Israelites. Of course that was the custom, but that custom was based on historic facts. As we have seen, Jesus himself called the Jews Israel in his description of Nicodemus, in his description of his own mission and in his first commission to the 12 apostles. Later, when Christ called Paul, he described him as "my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel" (Acts 9:15). What follows in Acts is a telling of how Paul fulfilled his commission. He went first to the Jews, who were the people of Israel, and then to the others. When Paul preached in the synagogue of the Pisidian Antioch he said,
Paul did not mean that John literally preached to all the people of Israel anymore than 2 Kings 17:20 meant that Assyria carried all Israel into captivity. Paul simply meant that vast numbers of Israelites heard John's message. Notice again, Paul called the Jews Israel. He consistently held this view. The thought that someone other than the Jews could still be called physical Israel was totally alien to all the apostles. One passage must be particularly hard to explain if one insists that God considers the "lost tribes" a part of the United States and Britain. Again, the words are from the apostle Paul.
From this appeal we learn that in Paul's day the 12 tribes, not just Judah, Benjamin and Levi, but all the 12 tribes, worshipped God. In Paul's day they continued to look for the fulfillment of God's promises to them, especially the resurrection of the dead. By the New Testament period, only the Jews could claim to be the legitimate remnants of the 12 tribes of Israel. The church of the first century looked no further. Why should we? The significance of this observation is as follows. It has historically been the church's claim, based on the conclusions of The United States and Britain in Prophecy, that since all of the house of Israel went into captivity and were subsequently lost, that none of the prophecies about them could be fulfilled by Judah. Yet because Judah contained large numbers of Israelites, this whole interpretation is highly suspect. The church has decided that on this subject, it will not speak where the Bible is silent. Nor will it continue to distribute a book that contains unscriptural and insupportable conclusions. As we commented early in this paper, we wish to fulfill the commission Christ gave to us. That commission has nothing to do with national identities. It has everything to do with eternal salvation and Christian discipleship. We hope that you can now better understand why we no longer distribute The United States and Britain in Prophecy. Source: Ralph Orr Endnotes 20. Unfortunately the NIV leaves out the words house of, even though they are in the Greek text. The NRSV retains those words.
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